Motherboard (?) problem

[RomTibi]

I have the following configuration:
- Motherboard ASUS A8V-MX
- Processor Athlon64 - 3200+
- RAM 512MB - DDR2 PC3200
- Video ATI RADEON SE 9200
- HDD Seagate 80GB/2MB-buffer - IDE - master with XP SP2
Western Digital 250GB/16MB-buffer - SATA2
- CDROM ASUS CRW5232AS
- DVDROM ASUS DRW1608PS2

The case has USB slots and Audio/Mic ports on the front on the back part.
***
A few months ago I have "lost" all but 1 USB slots and the back Audio/Mic ports.
A week ago the SATA2 HDD became unstable: after some transfer operations the partitions "dissapear" and after reboot reappear.

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM AND HOW TO SOLVE IT?

I suspect the Motherboard...

 

[eyeCpc]

Another thought to consider there for the 939 build especially with a board in used for a year or so would be the Lithium type battery on the board itself. Once those get weak you will start seeing a number of strange problems until the system fails to start one day.

Asus boards use the Duracell DL 2032 or Energizer CR 2032 number when going to a retail store's battery section. They are coin sized also seeing a 2031 next to them on battery racks at times. If the board is not seeing bad caps or another type of component failing that would be a low cost option.

 

[RomTibi]

Thanks ! I will consider this solution. In addition, a friend told me that might be a condencer that is "dry".

36. When you surround an army, leave an outlet free.
...
Do not press a desperate foe too hard.

SUN-TZU - Art of War

 

[Nick]

Thanks ! I will consider this solution. In addition, a friend told me that might be a condencer that is "dry".

36. When you surround an army, leave an outlet free.
...
Do not press a desperate foe too hard.

SUN-TZU - Art of War

niiiice and what does that mean?

 

[LA1]

a condenser is an old term for a capacitor or a cap like the other poster posted. What happened was there were some bad caps installed on zillions of mainboards. The caps are those little cans on the mainboard that look like water towers. What happened was there was some industrial espionage and some one broke into the computer that had the formula for the electolyte, the fluid inside the caps, they only got a portion of the formula . They made caps with this "bad" formula. So the caps heat up, the electrolyte boils. If you notice the tops of the caps have slits in it. This is to keep them from exploding, which still can happen even to a good cap, although not likely. So what you look for is
1. a puffed out cap
2. brown stuff ooozing from the slits at the top
3. both of the above.

When I was in high school b4 there were PCs and caps did NOT have the slits, we use to overvoltage them to get them to explode,,, like a firecracker.

 

[Nick]

lol im talking about the bit below the capacitor bit

 

[eyeCpc]

It wouldn't be simply any sabatage. But one good place for information on the plague of defective caps extends further then just seen with pc boards but often industry into other products as well. A guide for spotting bad caps on a board can be looked over at Badcaps.net - How To Identify

 

[RomTibi]

Today I tested the MB. Nothing wrong. The battery is okay. A lot of dust. I ran a few hw tests, and all passed.

Could it be a "deffective" OS ?

 

[Nick]

possibly format if you want or do a repair install, clean out that dust

 

[eyeCpc]

By ruling out an hardware problems seeing the list of items there I would also be agreement about the current installation needing repair or even a clean install.

Review the things you may have installed right when the first problems were starting to be seen. A bad install of some program can cause Windows headaches all too often.